The present invention relates generally to the field of computer-based information retrieval, and more particularly to search engines that generate a coherent synthesis of relevant search results.
Individual search engines have facilitated the access to data published on networks such as the Internet or intranets. However, individual search engines are subject to certain limitations, and this has resulted in the creation of federated search engines that exploit other information sources, including individual search engines, in order to provide a better answer to user queries. Federated search engines do not store a document collection; instead, federated search engines forward user queries to external information sources in order to retrieve relevant data using wrappers that specify the interaction with information sources.
Unlike individual search engines, federated search engines provide a single user interface for accessing multiple information sources that vary in content. However, this only increases the amount of information a search may uncover. Similar to individual search engines, federated search engines need to distill search results in a concise and coherent manner so that users may readily identify what they are looking for. Many search engines distill search results for a user by computing a score using preset criteria and ranking the search results based on the computed score. In addition, search engines help users locate information in search results they are looking for by clustering search results into groups or categories based on the characteristics of the search results.
Notwithstanding such advances made to help users locate information in search results, there continues to be a need to provide improved methods for distilling and presenting search results to users so that they more readily locate the information they are searching for. In addition, it would be advantageous if such improved methods not only helped users identify what they are looking for but also gain knowledge concerning the information they are looking for. Accordingly it would be advantageous to allow users of search engines to simultaneously locate information and knowledge concerning information related thereto in the search results.